Digest – Mar 5 & 6 – Sustaining ourselves via creativity

Cleveland, Events, General Assembly, Home, Local, Needs, Occupy Everywhere, People

Mar 042012

Digest for Mar. 5 & 6 (Monday & Tuesday)

Occupy the Presidential Primary – Monday March 5 @ 7:30 AM * March 6 Election Day * National Women’s Month * Invite to participate in Dance for Peace project June 24 * Research for Theater Piece: Please Share Your Thoughts * Current needs * Petition Roundup * International, national, state news * Upcoming events * Today’s quote * GA recap links * Occupy Cleveland Celebrates the New Year and African American History Month * Sorrow * Heart from Anonymous* Good news: incinerator rejected! * Support and volunteer requests from other organizations and unions * Preparing for a huge spring – various national calls for organization and assembly * More upcoming events * More reading / links

Weekday Schedule: Today and Tomorrow’s Special Events; 6-7 PM GA M-W-F, OPEN FORUM T-Th; 7 PM Community Chat; 8-10 PM Entertainment; 10 PM-2 AM Night Shift #1; 2-6 AM Night Shift #2; Upcoming Events; We are continuously in the NW Quadrant of Public Square 24/7 at the Info Tent

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Occupy the Presidential Primary – Monday March 5 @ 7:30 AM

March 6th is Super Tuesday, the day of the Republican Presidential Primary in Ohio. On March 5th, Occupy Cleveland plans to remind everyone why we are here.
Let’s make some noise about Ohio’s foreclosure crisis!

We’re gathering on Monday, March 5th, at 7:30 a.m. at the Occupy Cleveland Info Tent on Public Square. There will be coffee and donuts. We are then marching at 8:00 to a nearby site (it’s a surprise!) with drums, tambourines, vuvuzelas, trombones, and cymbals. Just be ready to smile, make noise, and make the 1% sweat! Wear whatever’s comfortable for the weather and makes you feel good. Bring your own sign (best related to housing foreclosures) or come early to make one with us.

The rally is close by, so not too much walking. It’s not only fun but guaranteed to be totally non-violent and family-friendly. We’re just leaving out the details because there’s a surprise element. And just to be very clear, there are no plans for illegal activity or anything that raises a risk of arrest.

Bring your family, friends, co-workers, and well-behaved animals.

IT’S A SUPER AWESOME SECRET GREAT THING!

http://www.facebook.com/events/281571378579290/

March 6 Election Day

Hey voters, here’s a handy-dandy election guide on cleveland.com. With this guide, you can see who is going to be on your ballot and what issues there are to vote on. It also includes links to articles on the Plain Dealer about the races and candidates. Many of the races are for judicial office–it can be a bit bewildering to navigate all the articles on judges with Google, but one can kind of get a hint as to what direction to take with the tools judgepedia.org and www.judge4yourself.com.

National Women’s Month

March is National Women’s Month and we’ve got a call to empower women of the Occupy movement…

Invite to participate in Dance for Peace project June 24

This in from Kalamazoo…

June 24th 2012.. we ask you to help us create a collaborated 24 hour dance marathon together for peace. Asking each area that wishes to partake, to adopt a certain amount of time on June 24th, To hold a public dance event, promoting some kind way to make your community more peaceful. Make music, make dancing!

We would love to coordinate action, to create a media coverage of some sort.

and would love to work with as many other occupies in not only action, but in creative input.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::Who should participate?:::::::::::::: :::::::::::::::::::::::

Anyone who loves music, who loves art, and who wants to see a more peaceful tomorrow.. We call this a dance event but would love support of any artistic or supportive voice out there

:::::::::::::::::::::::::: ::Intended Outcomes/ Accomplishments?::::::::::: :::::::

To successfully create a social event Which will be fun and educational,

that can be a good event for the local community to celebrate for a free event.

to promote peaceful change in local communities

To provide a project that Occupy, can strengthen our networking, communication, and team work skills with other occupies, activist groups, community

http://www.facebook.com/events/245803445490851/

Research for Theater Piece: Please Share Your Thoughts

For a theater work that we’re putting together (current working title: the Occuplay), we’re asking Occupiers and people connected, however tenuously, to the Occupy Movement, to answer four questions:

1. Who are you? (in a more significant sense than, say, name and age).

2. How did you hear about and come to Occupy?

3. What has your experience with and in Occupy been?

4. What is your vision of the future?

We intend to collect as many sets of responses as we can by March 5th. After that, we’ll be weaving these into performance scripts.

People will be collecting interviews at the tent and elsewhere. You can also email text responses or links to audio or video responses to occupycleveland.occuplay@gmail .com

Current needs

Furniture–if you see anything left out for garbage pickup that looks like it can be useful, perhaps grab it?
Call for bike donations! Have an old bike in danger of rusting away in your garage? We’re looking for bike donations!
Looking for items such as a fridge, stove, basically anything and everything for our new warehouse space.
Still need consistent food donations of prepared meals at the tent along with healthy nibbles for energy throughout the cold days
Donations

Petition Roundup

Petition: Walmart: Please Do Not Build a Walmart Super Center at Oakwood Commons
Petition to tax billionaires more
Petition to request immediate hearings regarding fracking in Ohio
Petition to request transitioning to clean, renewable energy in Ohio
Petition to submit ACTA to the Senate for Ratification (so that the Senate will kill the bill)
Petition to ask Senators to reject the tentative Keystone XL
Petition to ask Governor Kasich to stop the death penalty in Ohio
This comes on the heels of the release of Joe D’Ambrosio, who had spent twenty years on death row for the death of someone he did not kill. Info | Petition

International, National, State News & Opinion

International:

YouTube – OCCUPY LONDON – Evicted By POLICE State Storm Troopers
The Guardian – The itinerant US left has found its home in the Occupy movement
This American Life – Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory - Podcast on the conditions of workers who make Apple products

National:

Ohio & Cleveland:

Upcoming events

In addition to our regularly scheduled weekday events, here are some special events that are happening today! Lots to do! Unless otherwise noted, events are in NW Quadrant (Tom Johnson/Free Speech Quadrant) of Public Square or nearby in the white tent area. More upcoming events after today are here…

Special Events Through Monday

Sun. Mar 4 @ 2-4 PM – Meeting at Trinity Cathedral, 2230 Euclid Ave. Tentatively, the discussion could be on primary-related issues/actions and/or thoughts on how to use the warehouse.
Mon., Mar. 5 @ 7:30 AM – Occupy the Presidential Primary – Join us for coffee and donuts in the info tent in Public Square, and then at 8 we’ll do a musical march! Bring your kazoo, your instruments, your noisemakers for a most excellent time. http://www.facebook.com/events/281571378579290/
Mon. Mar 5 @ 10 PM – Interoccupy Weekly General Call – http://interoccupy.org/mondaycall/
Tues., Mar. 6 – Don’t forget to vote in the primaries! There are also county issues to vote on.
Mar. 9 & 10 (Fri & Sa) 7:30 PM - A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer: Writings To Stop Violence Against Women and Girls at East Cleveland Theater, 14108 Euclid Ave., E. Cleveland. http://www.facebook.com/groups/162863697136978/
More Events

Upcoming GA Votes - see Proposals section

Regular Daily Events

6 PM General Assembly on M-W-F, Open Forum T-Th- GAs are formal assemblies at the NW corner of Public Square or in white info tent west of this area. At this assembly, proposals and announcements are made. This is where consensus items are decided. Please review stances/thoughts at viewtopic.php?f=32&t=1003 for discussion in today’s GA. Recent GA recaps
Community Chat Following GA Today & Tomorrow – Informal assembly
Today & Tomorrow – 10 PM – 2 AM and 2 AM – 6 AM Evening Shifts – Please sign up at the white tent for an evening shift so that we can maintain effective occupancy overnight and relieve people who are overburdened. Dress extremely warmly with lots of layers and bring appropriate gear to keep yourself warm.

Working Group Meetings

Check for Meetings Here

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“The practice of patience protects us from losing our composure. In doing that it enables us to exercise discernment, even in the heat of difficult situations. It gives us inner space. And within that space we gain a degree of self-control, which allows us to respond to situations in an appropriate and compassionate manner rather than being driven by our anger and irritation.”

~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Please send poetry submissions/thoughts/quotes to occupyclevelandpoetry (_at symbol_) gmail.com. If you agree, let’s work on keeping things positive and promoting positive perspectives in this space…

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GA recap links

Thanks to all who help with the movement, and thanks to notekeepers and videographers! Please post written GA minutes in the GA portion of forums in written format: http://unju.st/forum.

Friday Mar. 2 Minutes | Wednesday Feb. 29 Minutes | Monday Feb. 27 Minutes | Archived Minutes and Videos

Recent Concensus Items

3-2 CONCENSUS Emergency Proposal to hold GA at a special location on Monday, March 5. 100% consensus. Email occupyclevelandoutreach [at symbol] gmail [dot] com or ask at tent for more details.
2-29 CONCENSUS to have a test GA at city hall steps Friday March 2
2-22 CONCENSUS to hold Occupy the Heart Street Festival, tentatively starting May 1.
2-10 CONCENSUS on proposal to rent 2,400 sq. ft. warehouse space
HAVE BEEN MISSING SOME CONCENSUS ITEMS. PLEASE POST NOTES IF YOU HAVE TIME & IT’S NOT TOO MUCH TROUBLE.
2-7 CONSENSUS-PROPOSAL PASSED: Proposal for Occupy Cleveland to sign on to a call for mass action in response to what seems to have been an attempt to suppress the movement, and to do a march in solidarity with a related national day of action on Feb. 28. This might involve some flyers and notification of the media.
2-7 CONCENSUS-PROPOSAL PASSED: Proposal for the person who rented a storage unit to be reimbursed for the expenses so far and the monthly rent. He’s already paid $91.59 plus a $25 initial fee.
1-6 CONCENSUS REACHED to modify 10% blocking to 5% blocking with granularity of 1 additional person supporting the person who is blocking for it to be a block per each 20 people in attendence at GA
1-6 CONCENSUS REACHED to do remembrance ceremony for Nick Christie & peaceful community involvement. Date TBD.

Recent proposals

2-22 PROPOSAL – Making friendly amendments friendly
2-20 PROPOSAL – Occupy the Heart fest
2-15 PROPOSAL – funding/reimbursements on various items to be voted on Friday, 2/17.
2-15 PROPOSAL – Partnership with “One Mad Mother Against Vaccinations”
2-12 PROPOSAL – Remote GA Participation capability
2-10 PROPOSAL to order “We are the 99%” stickers.
2-7 PROPOSAL in Facebook Open Forum for Warehouse unit rental – proposal will be introduced 2-8
2-7 PROPOSAL in forums – “Buy stock in the banks and companies we want to change”
1-9 INFORMAL PROPOSAL announced to help the poor with programs
1-6 UPCOMING PROPOSAL re “Prommunity”
1-2 PROPOSAL for consideration Wednesday, Jan. 4 for event of remembrance of Nick Christie (Ohio man who was pepper-sprayed to death)

Occupy Cleveland Celebrates the New Year and African American History Month

Sorry that this posting in the Digest is late! Just saw the video this morning:

Greetings from Occupy Cleveland to the world! Our video hopes to unite all Occupy movements in solidarity. Let us rise to the challenges of the New Year together. In this the month of Februrary, let us also remember the heroes of African American history who stuggled to bring us closer to equality.

Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFUGiUvtZAs

Sorrow

Our thoughts go out to the students and families affected by the mental illness that happened in Chardon last week.

Heart from Anonymous

Anonymous published a video in support of our upcoming festival April 28-May 5, Occupy the Heart Street Festival.

The group known as Anonymous has selected one of the longest standing continuous Occupations in the US for a gathering the week before the G8 in Chicago this Spring.

Which Occupy is this you ask? You’ll never guess… Cleveland, Ohio.

Good news: incinerator rejected!

Great when activism pays off–sometimes it can feel so overwhelming but if we just keep at issues and show our concerns, we can see great dividends! Many in the Cleveland Occupy movement and local environmentalist groups have participated in hearings regarding the proposed incinerator… we’ve worked hard to get this incinerator rejected and it’s paid off! The US EPC informed the Ohio EPA that the proposed incinerator did not meet health and environment requirements.

http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=281644

Support and volunteer requests from other organizations and unions

Several opportunities and requests for help from other orgs lately…

Trinity Episcopal Cathedral has helped us by providing a meeting space every other week. The church is currently seeking nonprofit partner organizations to be an eleven-month site placement for the 6-8 Service Corps volunteers. Participants are expected to serve full-time of 32 hours a week for eleven months at nonprofit site-placements in the city of Cleveland. We are also looking for sites that need volunteer help on Friday afternoons or periodic help on the weekends. The program begins this fall. Are you interested? Please contact The Rev. Sahra Harding at 216.774.0409

Second, the Teamsters Local 507 is on stike against the Red Cross, and is asking for support.

Preparing for a huge spring – various national calls for organization and assembly

Call to Occupy DC Starting March 30

NOW DC invites any occupiers who are interested and dedicated to the NOW DC mission to join in organizing NOW DC. NOW DC organizing calls are on Sundays at 9 pm eastern/6 pm pacific. Register for the organizing calls on InterOccupy.org: http://interoccupy.org/nowdccall/ if you are interested in joining a working group. Info

Peoples Movement Assemblies Gear-Up for 2012

Movement organizers across the US are gearing-up for Peoples Movement Assemblies in 2012. Twenty-six PMA organizers joined a call at the end of 2011 and shared updates and visions for how Peoples Movement Assemblies will be used to build movement power in the year ahead. PMA events include assemblies on queer and LGBT issues, incarcerated people, ending poverty, Palestine solidarity, education, elders, Occupy groups, and many local issues around the country. Click below and read more about these events and find something happening in your area! Info

More upcoming events through March

Events are in the NW Quadrant (Tom Johnson Quadrant) of Public Square unless otherwise noted.

Sun. Mar 4 @ 2-4 PM – Meeting at Trinity Cathedral, 2230 Euclid Ave. Tentatively, the discussion could be on primary-related issues/actions and/or thoughts on how to use the warehouse.
Mon., Mar. 5 @ 7:30 AM – Occupy the Presidential Primary – Join us for coffee and donuts in the info tent in Public Square, and then at 8 we’ll do a musical march! Bring your kazoo, your instruments, your noisemakers for a most excellent time. http://www.facebook.com/events/281571378579290/
Mon. Mar 5 @ 10 PM – Interoccupy Weekly General Call – http://interoccupy.org/mondaycall/
Tues., Mar. 6 – Don’t forget to vote in the primaries! There are also county issues to vote on.
Mar. 9 & 10 (Fri & Sa) 7:30 PM - A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant and A Prayer: Writings To Stop Violence Against Women and Girls at East Cleveland Theater, 14108 Euclid Ave., E. Cleveland. http://www.facebook.com/groups/162863697136978/
Saturdays @ 6 PM – Occupy Cleveland “Organizer Boot Camp.” We’ll most likely have a healthy meal at this boot camp, and there will be homework!
Tues., Mar. 13 – National call to action addressing Chase Bank’s predatory lending practices
Tues., Mar. 13 – ESOP press conference on mortgage situation
Tues., Mar. 13 @ noon through Wed., Mar. 14 at 11:30 PM – Occupy the Ohio Statehouse (Occupy the Rust Belt Regional Action) – http://www.facebook.com/events/104924389636895/
Wednesdays @ 8 PM – Drum Circle at Info Tent
Wednesdays @ 8 PM – Womens meeting
Thurs., Mar. 15 @ 7 PM – Occupy the Midwest Regional Conference (St. Louis) – http://www.facebook.com/events/264828373580309/
Fri., Mar. 16 – We have been invited to participate in a global day of action regarding Monsanto – http://www.facebook.com/events/162378010539412/
Sun. Mar 18 @ 2-4 PM – Meeting at Trinity Cathedral, 2230 Euclid Ave. Tentatively, the discussion could be on “Occupy the Heart.”
Sat., Mar. 31 in Detroit – National Conference for a Moratorium on Foreclosures & Evictions – United Methodist Church - http://nationalmoratorium.org/
Sat., Mar. 31 @ 7 PM – 1 AM – Occupy Benefit II: Another World is Possible – The 5 O’Clock Lounge, 11904 Detroit Ave., Lakewood. http://www.facebook.com/events/230612580354632/

Events for next month and the future can now be found on the Events page of the Occupy Site.

Interesting Links

Occutrip.com – a chronicle of the travels of a person surveying the Occupy movement in Europe to report back to the U.S.
The Occupied Wall Street Journal
Occupy First, Inc. – Banking for the 99%
OCCUPY CLEVELAND T-shirts

Recurring info

Weekend Schedule: Today and Tomorrow’s Special Events; 10 PM-2 AM Night Shift #1; 2-6 AM Night Shift #2; Upcoming Events; We are continuously in the NW Quadrant of Public Square 24/7 at the Info Tent

Info Tent #: (216) 202-4999 | Phone Rules

Wiki: http://wiki.occupycleveland.com